Posted on 10/05/2018 2:32:56 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
A Michigan man recently discovered that the rock he had been using as a doorstop for years was actually a meteorite valued at at least $100,000.
..."For 18 years, the answer has been categorically 'no' — meteor wrongs, not meteorites," Sirbescu said jokingly in a CMU statement.
It wasn't until this year that her answer was finally changed to a yes.
...After purchasing the land, the man put the rock to good use — a trusty doorstep like it had been for most of its Earth life.
That's how it landed with Sirbescu, who then took the meteorite to one of the labs on CMU's campus, where it was examined under an X-ray fluorescence instrument. It was determined that it was an iron-nickel meteorite with about 88 percent iron and 12 percent nickel, which is a metal rarely found on Earth. For reference, most iron meteorites are made up of about 90-95 percent iron.
(Excerpt) Read more at weather.com ...
I recall reading that in the 1800s some guy in North Carolina was using a huge gold nugget as a door step.
Sharky’s fault.
TTIWP.
First time I’ve ever said that about a meteorite thread.
Why can’t I ever find a rock worth $100,000?
I left off a W.
Why can’t I win the Powerball?
The good news is that he now has $100,000. The bad news is that he is infested with some strange alien bacteria that is controlling his mind.
:-)
Maybe now he can afford a prosthetic foot for all the times as he’s kicked it in the middle of the night.
Here’s a better one. Out in Nevada during the gold rush, one site wasn’t panning out too well. Conditions were primitive & rough, with a heavy thick blue mud that was everywhere and stuck to everything. Nobody was finding any gold. One fellow who had some geology background was curious about that blue mud and sent off a sample for assay.
It came back as about 85% pure silver or somesuch. He quietly bought up all the nearly worthless “gold” claims he could, cheap. It ended up being one of the richest silver mines in world history, basically an entire mountain made of silver known as the Comstock Lode.
That looks like a rock to me. I wonder what made the man take it to the lab for examination. I would have kept it as a door stop.
I have a post card somewhere from Greensburg, KS. Home of the world’s largest palasite meteorite. Also the big well.
There was a large, horse shaped meteorite in AZ, 1800’s that was being used as a blacksmith anvil. Came out of Mexico.
I would never pay that much money for a doorstop. Some people have money to burn.
It has some interesting colors in it. I’m glad he found out what it is.
The difference between a meteor and a meteorite?
A meteorite is longer.
I thought the difference was more that a meteor is an object hurtling through outer space or the atmosphere, and that a meteorite is what is physically left of it on or in the ground.
Yes, that led to the Reed Gold Mine and many others. North Carolina was the largest gold producer in the United States prior to the California gold rush.
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